I nod and shake his hand. “Pleasure.”
His smile widens when he turns to Addie. “Hey, blondie.”
“It’s about time you came home, handsome.” He hugs her tightly and lifts her up off her feet. “I missed you.”
“Missed you more,” he murmurs, then sets her down and ruffles her hair, the way someone would do to their sibling.
“You’re messing up my hair!”
“Sorry. Not sorry.”
“For someone who flies trillion-dollar planes for the government, you’re sure immature,” she says and sticks her tongue out at him.
“Is that what you do?” I ask as he laughs at Addie.
“They’re not trillions of dollars, but yes. I fly jets for the navy. Currently stationed in Europe.”
“That’s amazing; welcome home. How long do you get to stay?”
“A few days,” Mia says with a pout. “He thought it would be fun to visit friends in Scotland before he came home this time.”
“Rude,” Addie says, glaring at Landon. “How dare you have a life?”
“How do you deal with these women?” he asks me.
“It’s a hardship, that’s for sure,” I reply and tug Addie against me so I can kiss her temple. She smells like fresh apples today. Her hair has purple highlights and is pulled back into a loose braid that falls to the middle of her back. She’s dressed simply, in a tank top with a ruffled front and a long black skirt with sandals.
She’s as comfortable as I’ve ever seen her. This is her family.
“You haven’t been home in eighteen months,” she says primly. “You didn’t even come home for our grand opening.”
Landon cringes. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t get home for it. But I’m coming for dinner tomorrow night.”
“If you stayed through the weekend, you’d get to hear Jake sing,” Mia says, batting her eyes.
“It’s called AWOL, Mia,” he reminds her. “I don’t get to decide how long my leave is.” Then he turns to me and tilts his head. “I thought I recognized you. Jake Knox, right?”
I nod, surprised that Mia didn’t already tell her brother that I’ve been playing at her restaurant.
“I liked your stuff,” Landon says and snatches a carrot off a nearby table. “I prefer the stuff you produce now.”
I cock a brow. Most people don’t know that I produce.
“Stop acting like you don’t know he’s part of our circle.” Mia rolls her eyes. “He’s been doing the big-brother thing and had a background check done on you.”
Now both eyebrows climb into my hairline. “Really?”
“You’re working with my sister and sleeping with a woman I love as if she were also my sister. You bet your ass I did.” He smiles and claps me on the shoulder. “But you came out clean.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Either you’re an upstanding citizen, or you haven’t been caught yet,” he says while chewing his carrot.
“Did you really just say that?” Addie demands, but Landon just continues to stare at me, and the message is crystal clear:
Fuck with them and I’ll kill you and make it look like an accident.
“You don’t have anything to worry about from me,” I assure him soberly. “This one”—I point to Mia—“worships the ground I walk on, and this one”—I point to Addie—“can’t get enough of me. It’s embarrassing how they dote on me.”
“He’s delusional,” Addie says dryly as Mia simply rolls her eyes and runs off to greet several guys who just walked into the backyard. Three of them are carrying guitars.
“Did you hire a band?” I ask in surprise.
“No, my friends just like to jam around the fire.” Landon grins and flicks Addie’s nose as he walks by to greet his friends. “Maybe you can play with us later.”
“I didn’t bring a guitar,” I call out to him.
“I have a few you can borrow.”
“You totally don’t have to play,” Addie says and shakes her head. “But knowing his friends, they’ll go all fangirl on you when they meet you. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. After five minutes they’ll be normal again.”
She nods and then smiles as an older couple come out the back door of the house, arms loaded with plates and bowls.
“Let us help,” Addie says and steps forward, but the small, dark woman simply shakes her head and sets the bowl on a table.
“You’re a guest, mi amore.” She cups Addie’s face in her hands and tugs her down so she can kiss both of Addie’s cheeks. “You stay away too long.”
“I’m sorry, Mama, we’ve just been busy with the restaurant.”
“Our Mia says the same,” the tall man replies sternly. “You work too hard.”
“Mama, Papa, this is Jake. These are Mia and Landon’s parents, Noemi and Giovanni Palazzo.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” I say, shaking Giovanni’s hand, and then suddenly, my own cheeks are being tugged down so Noemi can kiss my cheeks as well.
“You’re handsome,” she says with a wink. “You’re keeping our Addison on her toes, yes?”
“I’m trying,” I reply with a laugh. “But I think she’s keeping me on my toes.”
“Good girl,” she says with another wink. “You be at home here, Jake. Eat, or I’ll feed you myself.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m here!” Cami announces as she joins us, getting hugs from Mia’s parents, then snatches a cookie from the table. “God, I’m hungry.”
“Thanks,” Landon says, gripping Cami’s wrist in his fist and guiding her cookie to his own mouth, biting off at least half of it. “I’m hungry too.” He winks and walks away, chatting with some friends.
Cami simply swallows hard, clenches her eyes closed, takes a deep breath, and then eats the remainder of her cookie.
“You okay?” Addie asks her softly.
“Never better. Is there liquor?”
“I see some coolers over by the fire pit,” I reply and grab Addie’s hand in mine as we follow Cami toward the chairs. “How long has she been in love with him?”
Addie’s gaze whips up to mine, then back to Cami. “Our whole lives.”
“It shows.”
“Not to him,” Addie replies as we both watch Landon wrap Cami in a bear hug, then ruffle her hair, the same way he did Addie’s. “See?”
“Maybe he sees it but doesn’t know what to do about it?”
Addie shrugs. “Maybe it’s none of our business.” She chuckles as we sit next to each other. “Thanks for coming.”
“Thanks for inviting me.”
DINNER WAS AMAZING. I can see where Mia gets her culinary skills. It has to be embedded in her genetic makeup.
We’re in a large semicircle around the now-lit fire. Cami and Addie are roasting marshmallows. Two of the three friends of Landon—Mike and Corey—are playing guitar and singing some old Johnny Cash songs.
They’re not half-bad.
Corey stops playing halfway into “Ring of Fire” and says, “It feels weird to sing songs with Jake Knox sitting here with us. Play with us, man.”
“I don’t have—”
“I have a guitar for you to play,” Landon says and dashes into the house to retrieve it.
“You don’t have to,” Addie says with worried eyes, but I just smile and brush my hand down her long braid.
“It’ll be fun. Maybe they’ll teach me a thing or two.”
“Right.” Mike snorts.
Landon passes me the guitar, a Gretsch, which is gorgeous. “Nice guitar, man.”
He grins and sits on a bench next to Cami. “I know.”
“Let’s do ‘Ring of Fire’ again, from the top,” Mike says and we all break into the song. I sing along with the guys, enjoying myself. I haven’t jammed just for fun in a very long time.
We play three more songs, and then conversation takes over. S’mores are made, jokes are told. I begin to strum the melody that won’t leave me alone lately. I’ve only ever play
ed it on the piano, but it sounds just as sweet on the guitar.
“That’s pretty,” Addie murmurs next to me. “I don’t recognize it.”
It’s yours.
“It’s just something I’ve been fiddling with,” I reply honestly.
“Oh my God, Addie!” Mike calls from across the fire. “I can’t play ‘Margaritaville’ without thinking about that time you and I went on that weekend trip to the beach.”
Addie chuckles beside me. “You mean the time I went when my parents said I couldn’t and I got grounded for a month when we got home?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that you were a disobedient teenager,” Mike replies with a smile. “Addie and I used to date in high school,” he informs me. I glance down at Addie, who simply laughs.
“Date is a strong word, Mike. I think you used to annoy the hell out of me in high school is more accurate.”
“Right,” Mike says with a sarcastic nod. “You just keep telling yourself that.”
“Addie was quite the naughty girl when we were younger,” Mia informs me as she takes a bite of her s’more.
“Oh, do tell.” I set the guitar aside and lean in, already fascinated.
“Remember that time we had a kegger out on old man Mathewson’s property when we were seniors?” Corey asks. “That means Addie, Mia, and Cami were sophomores.”
“Oh God,” Addie groans and then laughs out loud. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“She got so drunk,” Cami says with a shake of the head. “So, so drunk.”
“So drunk that she stripped naked and jumped in the lake,” Landon says, laughing. “It was March, I think.”
“February,” Addie mutters. “It was so fucking cold!”
“Sobered you right up,” Mia adds. “But then, when she tried to get dressed, she couldn’t find her panties. Turns out, she’d flung them over her head, and they got stuck on a tree branch about twenty feet in the air.”
The girls are doubled over in laughter, wiping tears from their eyes.
“Hey, I retrieved them for her!” Corey says. “I climbed that damn tree and got pitch all over me.”
“Poor baby,” Addie says, then sighs as the laughter subsides. “Ah, the good ol’ days.”
“Wait,” Cami says with a frown. “Was that twelve years ago, or last week, because she’d totally still do that.”
“Not in February,” Addie says, laughing all over again.
“Blondie!” Landon slaps his leg, then points to Addie. “Remember the summer after you graduated, and I came home on leave, and we went camping?”
“Uhh . . .” Addie replies, but Mia jumps in.
“The sad old man!” Mia exclaims.
“Sad old man?” I ask, enthralled.
“Addie saw this old man at a campsite next to ours, and she decided he looked sad,” Mia explains.
“So, she went over to the edge of his site and flashed him,” Cami finishes, rolling with laughter again.
“Did you ever keep your clothes on?” I ask her.
“Not if I could help it,” she admits with a naughty grin. “Why would anyone do that?”
I’m going to fuck the hell out of her when we get home.
She glances up at me and frowns. “What’s wrong?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
Her eyes narrow. “What are you thinking?”
I smile and she swallows hard, then I lean in and whisper in her ear, “I’m thinking about being behind you later and fucking you until you can’t remember your name.”
I pull away and she blinks rapidly. “Oh.”
“Oh,” I agree.
“DO YOU LEAVE tomorrow?” Addie asks.
“In the morning, yes, but I’ll only be gone for twenty-four hours.” She nods grimly, but smiles bravely. “You’re going to miss me.”
“You’re only going to be gone for twenty-four hours,” she says and rolls her eyes. “I think I’ll survive it. What are you going to L.A. for again?”
“I’m presenting Steve Jennings with a lifetime achievement award,” I reply. “It’s a big deal.”
“Definitely.” She nods and follows me into my house. “That’s exciting for him. My friends liked you,” Addie says as we make our way up the stairs to my bedroom. “I could tell.”
“How could you tell?”
“They didn’t try to beat you up,” she says with a laugh.
“I liked them too,” I reply and pull the covers back on the bed, then tug my shirt over my head and throw it on the floor. I reach out for Addie, to help her out of her sexy clothes, but she shakes her head.
“Just have a seat.”
“Excuse me?” I lift a brow and brace my hands on my hips.
“You heard me,” she says with a coy smile. “Sit on the bed. Please.”
“Since you asked nicely.” I sit on the bed and almost swallow my tongue when she turns her back to me and slowly lifts her top over her head, then lets it fall to the floor.
She’s wearing a flesh-colored strapless bra, which is quickly unfastened and joins her top on the floor.
God, her back is gorgeous.
She tosses me a flirty smile over her shoulder and pushes her thumbs into the waist of her skirt, and with just a couple of tugs over her hips, it floats to the floor, leaving her completely bare.
She turns slowly, tilts her hip out to the side, and the wide smile on her gorgeous face is nothing but pure sin.
“Come here.”
She walks slowly toward me, and when she reaches a hand out to me, I catch it in my own grip and pull her onto the bed, rolling us until she’s beneath me.
“You have no idea how fast my heart races when I look at you,” I whisper, my lips mere inches from hers. “You turn me inside out, Addison.”
“You do the same to me,” she murmurs. Her fingertip is tracing the ink on my arm in long, lazy strokes.
“I was going to fuck you hard tonight.” My voice is calm. Matter-of-fact. “But that’s not what I need right now.”
“What do you need?” she asks.
“I need,” I kiss the corner of her mouth, “to make,” then the other corner, “love to you.” My fingertips brush down her neck to her breast, where they tease her nipple until it’s hard, and then travel farther south, over her barely rounded belly to the most beautiful pussy I’ve ever seen in my fucking life.
“You’re already wet.”
“You’re already hard,” she replies and circles her hips, grazing over my still-jean-covered hard-on.
“Sweetheart, I’ve been hard since the first moment I saw you.”
“That must be very uncomfortable for you,” she whispers before she bites my lower lip. She reaches between us and unzips my pants, tugging them down my hips, and when my cock springs free, she immediately guides me to her wetness.
“Addie, we don’t have to rush.”
“I’m not rushing.” She shakes her head and sighs when just the tip slides inside her. “I just need this with you.”
“Why?”
She opens her big blue eyes, and I can see it there. She loves me.
And God, I love her so much it hurts.
How am I just now realizing this? She’s as important to me now as breathing, and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to make sure she’s safe. That she’s happy.
“Because, I—”
“You what, baby?”
“I just do.”
She tips her forehead against my shoulder, hiding. It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. I sink all the way inside her and rest there. We’re both panting harder now, and sweat is beaded on my forehead at the energy it’s taking me to hold back from pounding the fuck out of her.
“You scare me a little,” she admits softly.
“You scare me a lot,” I reply with a grin. “I think that if it wasn’t scary it wouldn’t mean as much.”
She smiles slowly and circles her hips again, making my eyes cross.
“God, baby, you feel so fuckin
g good.”
“So good,” she agrees and clings to me as I begin to thrust in and out, in a long, slow rhythm. I don’t want to rush it. I don’t want it to be over yet.
I want to savor every fucking second with her.
I push one of her legs up over my shoulder, opening her to me, so I can sink in even deeper. She cries out and digs her nails into my ass, pulling me in.
And I almost come, right here.
But I bite my lip and hold on, riding her, watching her face as her own orgasm begins to wash over her.
“So close,” she whispers. “So close.”
“So beautiful.” I kiss her lips and press my forehead against hers. Her tight pussy is clenching me now, almost desperately, and her already strong grip tightens on my ass as she comes spectacularly.
“That’s right, baby,” I croon, brushing loose pieces of hair off of her damp cheeks. “Let go.”
“Come with me.”
“I’m right here with you,” I assure her and let go, exploding inside her, around her. She holds me close until the aftershocks subside, and I roll us to our sides, facing each other.
“It always feels like the first time,” she says, almost shyly.
I smile and kiss her nose, her lips, her cheek. “It’s all you, sweetness.”
“No, it’s us.”
Chapter Thirteen
Addison
“Hey, blondie.”
I twirl at the sound of Landon’s voice in my ear, and am instantly caught up in a big bear hug. “What are you doing here, handsome?”
“My flight leaves in a few hours, so I thought I’d stop in here before the place got hopping for lunch to say goodbye to my best girls.”
My heart sinks at the thought of Landon leaving. It could be another year before we see him again.
“I hate that you’re stationed way the hell over in Europe,” I reply with a pout. “Aren’t there naval bases in the States?”
He just smirks and shrugs. “I like it there.”
“Well, stop waiting so long between visits home,” I scold him as we walk toward the bar.
“Now you sound like my mother,” he replies with a laugh just as his eyes land on Cami, who’s sitting at the bar, spreadsheets laid out before her. She’s biting her lip as her fingers fly over a ten-key calculator.
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